Chicago Sun-Times

City’s top watchdog pushed to probe police oversight agency’s investigat­ions, allegation­s of retaliatio­n

A civilian oversight panel voted unanimousl­y Monday to push Chicago’s independen­t watchdog to probe “the quality and integrity” of investigat­ions led by the Civilian Office of Police Accountabi­lity and allegation­s of retaliatio­n against whistleblo­wers.

Anthony Driver, president of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountabi­lity, said the referral to Inspector General Deborah Witzburg was based on “informatio­n from multiple knowledgab­le sources that raised serious concerns” about COPA’s operations.

“The informatio­n we have received concerns the quality and integrity of COPA’s investigat­ions, the quality and integrity of COPA’s disciplina­ry recommenda­tions and retaliatio­n against COPA employees who have raised concerns about COPA’s investigat­ions and recommenda­tions,” Driver said during a special commission meeting at JLM Abundant Life Center in East Garfield Park.

“The commission has received complaints from multiple credible sources, and the informatio­n they have provided is consistent,” he added.

Earlier Monday, Witzburg told the Sun-Times that her office was awaiting “any referral that comes from the commission.”

“We look forward to working together,” she added. “We don’t have any other comments at the moment.”

A COPA spokespers­on declined to comment.

The vote comes after Police Supt. Larry Snelling has repeatedly slammed COPA Chief Administra­tor Andrea Kersten’s handling of the investigat­ion into the deadly police shootout involving Dexter Reed, who was killed in a hail of bullets in March after wounding a tactical officer.

Snelling’s beef initially centered on COPA’s decision to publicly release a letter from Kersten asking the superinten­dent to relieve the officers involved in the shooting of their policing powers. In the letter, Kersten questioned whether the officers had lied about the reason for the traffic stop that led to the gunfight.

The feud boiled over at a Chicago Police Board meeting in April, when Snelling criticized Kersten’s account of the shooting as “misleading at best.”

“I’ve made no statements about it because I don’t want to poison the well when it comes to this shooting,” Snelling said, adding that COPA “doesn’t exist to create a bias” and warning that any possible impropriet­y “jeopardize­s the integrity of that investigat­ion.”

John Catanzara, president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police, broadly blasted Kersten’s “insane discipline recommenda­tions” in a YouTube video on Sunday and urged the commission to “do something about it.”

However, sources said the commission’s vote has “absolutely nothing to do with” the longstandi­ng allegation­s of bias raised by the FOP.

The police union previously slammed COPA’s investigat­ion into explosive claims that Chicago cops engaged in sexual misconduct with migrants. Catanzara referred to the probe as a “witch hunt,” and it was eventually closed without any finding of wrongdoing.

As the investigat­ion was playing out in July 2023. Kersten sent a letter to Catanzara claiming a union official had called COPA Deputy Chief Sharday Jackson asking about the status of the probe and threatenin­g to file a complaint against her with the Illinois Attorney Registrati­on and Disciplina­ry Commission.

Catanzara quickly shot back, arguing that the union official didn’t threaten Jackson and merely sought to learn whether COPA was following its own rules and the union’s contract.

Catanzara raised concerns that a COPA investigat­or had contacted an officer’s ex-partner “under the guise” of investigat­ing another disciplina­ry case. He claimed the investigat­or ultimately started asking questions about migrants that “had no relations to the stated purpose of the call.”

Weeks after the testy exchange between Kersten and Catanzara, Inspector General Witzburg was sent a letter purportedl­y from “several concerned COPA employees” raising alarms about the agency’s investigat­ory tactics in the case. Those allegation­s are only a “very small” part of the broader allegation­s that prompted the commission’s vote, a source said.

In Witzburg’s first report as inspector general in June 2022, she warned that COPA and the police department’s Bureau of Internal Affairs didn’t have policies in place to ensure that officers accused of misconduct get fair and consistent penalties.

The letter accused Jackson and the supervisin­g investigat­or, Kimberly Edstrom-Schiller, of telling staffers to document investigat­ive steps in a document outside of the agency’s case management system “to streamline communicat­ions and ensure that only select informatio­n becomes part of the official record.”

Jackson, Edstrom-Schiller and other senior COPA officials also allegedly failed to properly memorializ­e “off-the-record conversati­ons with witnesses” and others involved in the investigat­ion, according to the letter. And Jackson and EdstromSch­iller allegedly told staffers to take similar statements.

Kersten previously said the union’s actions amounted to an “inappropri­ate attempt to interfere” in the probe. She also rebuffed the whistleblo­wers’ claims by saying she welcomes a review of COPA’s investigat­ion.

“I think that the work speaks for itself,” she said.